The present invention relates to audio-video playback device that at east reproduces images and sounds recorded in a recording and reproducing medium such as a disk type recording and reproducing medium (hereinafter referred to as disk), and a tape type recording and playback medium or the like. The images are reproduced by a liquid crystal display (LCD) monitor, speakers and a headphone.
In recent years, various types of audio-video playback device that reproduce images and sounds recorded in a disk such as a video compact disk (Video-CD), digital versatile disk (DVD) or the like are proposed. In the recent trend of reducing weight and size of electronic device, much attention has been paid to compact type disks for personal use.
Hereinafter a conventional audio-video playback device is described referring to illustrations.
FIG. 16 shows an example of a conventional audio-video playback device. In FIG. 16, an device body 101 has a shape of sideways long rectangular parallelepiped, and has a disk cover 101l at the center part of the top side 101U. A disk (not illustrated) is set under the cover 101l by opening the cover 101l. Operation switches 101c are disposed on the front side 101F and the top side 101U of the device body 101 for the operation such as playback, stop and the like of the disk. Speakers 101s are disposed on the top side 101U at both left and right sides of the disk cover 101l, for outputting playback sounds of the disk in stereo, to which a plurality of persons can listen at the same time.
The left side 101L and the right side 101R of the device body 101 have a roundish curved surface. On the left side 101L, a headphone terminal 101h is disposed. Through a headphone (not illustrated) connected to the terminal 101h, the user of the device can enjoy playback sounds of the disk alone because the sound output from the speakers 101s are cut when the headphone is connected to the terminal 101h. On the right side 101R, a power source terminal 101p is disposed. To the terminal 101p, an AC adapter (not illustrated) for connection to home use electricity or a DC adapter (not illustrated) for connection to car battery is connected for supplying electric power to the audio-video playback device. On the back side 101B, an audio signal output terminal 101a and a video signal output terminal 101v are disposed for outputting the respective signals for an external stereo amplifier (not illustrated) and for an external TV monitor (not illustrated). At around the four corners of the bottom side 101S, rubber legs 101g are solidly attached by an adhesive (one of the legs is shown in FIG. 16). A monitor portion 102 has a rectangular parallelepiped shape of the size smaller than the projected plane area of the device body 101. The monitor portion 102 is rotatably supported by rotatably supporting portions 103 disposed at the back end, close to the back side 101B, of the top side 101U, and opens or closes over the top side 101U of the device body 101. At the center part of the display side 102I of the monitor portion 102, a liquid crystal display unit (hereinafter referred to as LCD) 102m is disposed for displaying playback images of the disk.
The conventional audio-video playback device having the above structure is set on a study desk, a dining table or a flat portion beyond driver""s sight of a car dashboard (hereinafter referred to as desk for these) in the manner that the bottom side 101S faces downward, then the electric power is supplied through the power source terminal 101p of the right side 101R. By operating the operation switches 101c, many people can watch the playback images and listen to the playback sounds at the same time. When a user wants to enjoy playback sounds alone, it can be done by connecting a headphone to the headphone terminal 101h because the sounds do not come out from the speakers when the headphone is connected to the terminal. The connection cord of the headphone often extends from the left side of a headphone, accordingly the headphone can be neatly connected by the cord to the device having a headphone terminal at the left side 101L.
However, there are the following problems in the structure of conventional audio-video playback device. The left and the right sides of the device body have a curved shape and have terminals respectively, and, the size of the device body and that of the monitor portion are different from each other. Therefore, stable side-down setting of the device in the manner that the right or the left side of the device faces downward is difficult, i.e., the device can only be set stably in the manner that the bottom side of the device body faces downward. Therefore, a user laying himself or herself in the manner that his or her head is laid as illustrated in FIG. 17 cannot watch playback images in a directionally natural state. Also, since the speakers are disposed on the device body in stead of the monitor portion, a user cannot face to the speakers even in ordinary setting of the device. Therefore sufficient sound characteristics cannot be obtained, and thus, when the user lies down, he hears the sounds from the upper and the lower side of the device, accordingly the stereo effect cannot be obtained.
An audio-video playback device of the present invention comprises an device body having a left and a right sides reproduces an audio and a video signals recorded in a recording and playback medium, and outputs the reproduced signals, a monitor portion having a left and a right sides, display means disposed on the main surface of the monitor portion, for displaying an image according to a video signal inputted from the device body, and rotatably supporting portions disposed on the device body and having rotation axis for rotatably supporting the monitor portion, wherein, a plane formed by a first side out of the left and the right sides of the device body and a plane formed by a second side, located at the same side with the first side, out of the left and the right sides of the monitor portion, form a substantially same plane, and the substantially same plane is substantially vertical to the rotation axis of the rotatably supporting portions, and the gravity center of the device body locates between a center line and the first side, wherein the center line locates in the center between the left side and the right side of the device body.
In the above structure, the first side of the device body and the second side, which locates at the same side with the first side, of the monitor portion are substantially on the same plane that is substantially vertical to the rotation axis, and, the gravity center of the device body locates toward the first side of the device body. Accordingly, the very stable setting of the device in the manner that the first side of the device body faces downward in the state that the monitor portion is opened by rotating the monitor portion on the rotation axis (hereinafter referred to as side-down setting) is realized. The side-down setting is as stable as the setting of device in the manner that the bottom side of the device faces downward (hereinafter referred to as ordinary setting). Accordingly, an audio-video playback device, in which a user can watch images displayed on the display area in the state that the device is set in the manner that either of the bottom side or the first side faces downward, can be obtained.
The audio-video playback device of the present invention has no operation switches and no input/output terminals on the first side of the device body and the second side of the monitor portion, and has a structure that the gravity center of the device body locates toward the first side of the device body.
In this structure, terminals such as power source terminal, headphone terminal and the like and switches such as power source switch, playback operation switches and the like are not disposed on the first side of the device body and the second side of the monitor portion, and the gravity center of the device body locates toward the first side. Accordingly an audio-video playback device, in which very stable side-down setting as in the ordinary setting and audio-video playback operation are practicable and a user can operate for watching images displayed on the display area in the state that either of the bottom side or the first side faces downward, can be obtained.
The audio-video playback device of the present invention has a reversing signal output unit that outputs reversing instruction signal for reversing display images upside down and left to right and for reversing sounds left to right, a video signal reversing unit that reverses video signals and outputs video signals of images of upside down and left-right reversed according to the reversing instruction signal after receiving video signals from an audio-video signal reproduction unit, a display unit for displaying images according to the video signals received form the video signal reversing unit, an audio signal output unit that outputs audio signals to a headphone when the headphone is connected or to speakers when the headphone is disconnected after receiving audio signals from audio-video signal reproduction unit and the reversing instruction signal. In this case, when the reversing instruction signal is outputted by operating the reversing operation switch of the reversing signal output unit, the display images are reversed upside-down and left to right, and the sounds are reversed left to right. However it is formed in the manner that the audio signal output unit outputs audio signals of left-right reversed according to the reversing instruction signal only when the sounds of the audio signals are outputted from speakers.
By the above structure, an audio-video playback device, in which a user can reverse the images and sounds by his or her operation for watching and listening through either speakers or headphone natural display images and natural sounds in the state of laying himself or herself in the manner of his or her right side down or left side down, can be obtained.